Eagle Rhode Island
January the 5th: 1778.
Number 49.
Sir,
With this you will receive a Duplicate of my Letter of the 10th. of December,1 wherein I have submitted several Particulars to the Consideration of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, respecting the general Appointment of the Ships of His Majesty's Fleet under my Direction: The Original having been sent in the Brilliant Ordnance Transport.
By my Letter of the 6th: of the same Month,2 given to the Care of Captain Reynolds,3 who took his passage to England in the Dutton Transport, their Lordships will be informed of the Disposition made for the further Employment of the Ships which had been concerned in the late Operations in the Delaware. Those Arrangements having taken place, and the Ships proceeded according to their several Destinations, I sailed on the 29th. for Rhode-Island.
The Condition of the Ships, and the Service for which they are respectively intended, being shewn in the enclosed Returns; I only trouble their Lordships with some Circumstances peculiar to each, which, in the general State of this Fleet, require such further Explanation.
The floating Ice, which subsists with little Intermission the earlier part of the Year within the port of New-York, does not admit of Ships being continued there in Safety, unless at the Wharfs in the East River. Commodore Hotham was therefore desired to station the Mercury and Rose to cruize alternately in the mean Time, on the Jersey Coast; As, by the Tenor of his last Letter there seems little Appearance of any material Insult being attempted by the Rebels, on the port adjacent to their
former Stations.
A new Lower Mast and Bowsprit have been requisite for the Cerberus; And for the Venus of which the Fore-Mast and Bowsprit were sprung on her passage from England. The Main-Mast of the Fowey is in the same State, and the Ship reported to be in other respects defective and unfit for Winter-Service at Sea. I have directed a particular Inquiry to be made into the Grounds of that Representation; But the Sickness which prevailed amongst the Crew on their Arrival, would have been an
insurmountable Obstruction to the proposed Employment of the Ship at this Time.
The Centurion, Cerberus and Tartar are much out of Condition; the last more particularly. The Senegal and Scorpion have been long in the same State: And the Rose, Swan and Raven, being single Bottoms, will suffer by their Continuance in this Country. But the Occasion for the immediate Service of the Ships has been such this last Year, on every Station, that they could not be relieved.
On my Arrival here the 2d. Instant in the Eagle, with the Brune and Solebay, I had the Concern to find, that the Number of Sick in the Raisonable and Somerset was much increased. And from the Scarcity of such vegetable Refreshments as their Complaints require, it is uncertain when the Ships may become fit for the Service on which I meant they should be employed; at least in the earlier part of the Year.
In the Dispatches I received from Sir Peter Parker a short Time before I left the Delaware, I had an Account of the Loss of the Syren, by some unaccountable Neglect, as signified in the Extract from the Rear Admiral's Letter of the 22d. of last November herewith enclosed.4 An Inquiry into the Circumstances of the Accident will be directed, when the Captain is exchanged.
The Ship having been added to the Squadron reserved for the immediate Defence of the port, preparatory to the threatened Invasion of this Island (the particulars of which are also added from the Rear Admirals preceding Letter of the 30th. of October)5 her place must be supplied, if possible, from other Services. The Relief on the Cruizing Stations, will thence become more confined: But the Force the Rebels can now assemble in the Northern Colonies, requires every Attention to
this important post; wherein Assistance from the Fleet can contribute to its Security. These Endeavors in the same respect will be equally extended to the Province of Nova Scotia.
For this last Occasion I mean to employ the Raisonable. Consequently the chief defensive Strength of this Fleet, which could be collected on a pressing Occasion (adverted to in Case of a Rupture with the other Maritime powers in Europe) would be so much reduced.
The Service on the point of taking place at the Time expressed in the Rear Admiral's Letter, tho' essential and recommended for Consideration in the Spring; could not be sooner undertaken, nor, for different Reasons, since prosecuted.
The Chatham, which, of the two-decked Ships, is in the most defective State, will soon sail to be refitted in England. The Amazon and Juno will proceed under Orders to the same Effect; with the Transports waiting here to receive the Troops of General Burgoyne's Army, when it is ascertained at what port they are to be embarked.
These are the only Ships which the Exigencies of the present Service admit of being spared from the American Station; Tho' many of them are unequal in their Condition to the constant Employment on which they are necessarily engaged. But being yet unapprized of the Mode, in which it may be required that the Operations of the ensuing Campaign should be carried on; I can only submit the State of the
Fleet to their Lordships' Consideration, with respect to the Appointments requisite in Number and Circumstance, for the future purpose intended.
The Port of New-York being insecure for the third Rates so late in the Year, the Stores sent in the Buffalo for the Ships of that Class, were brought in her to Rhode-Island. By removing a part of her Lading into the Grampus, and other Expedients, that Store-Ship will be cleared to sail for England with the Tortoise and Chatham. But as no fit Place can be provided at this port for depositing the Stores, of which a considerable part will be left in the Grampus after those which can be received into the Ships here have been taken out, she must necessarily be detained, until the Season admits of her Return to land the Remainder at New York.
The Commanders of the Store-Ships representing with great Justice the Weight of the Charge laid unavoidably on them, under the only Mode that can be adopted for the Issue of Stores from their Ships, in these Circumstances; With respect to the many Articles of the small Stores more especially I am to request their Lordships' Orders, that an Extra Clerk, or other qualified person, may be appointed to have Charge of the Stores on similar Occasions: As the same Necessity will very probably subsist for the Attendance of the Store-Ships and Issue of the
Stores from the Ships immediately, in future Instances.
The Lark and Flora losing their Masts on their last Cruize off of Boston, added to the many other Accidents of the same kind which happened last year, will render the Scarcity in that Article of the fitting Stores a considerable Inconvenience.
In further Reply to the purport of your Letters by the Venus, I am to acknowledge as an Instance of their Lordships Indulgence, the adequate Salary they have been pleased to assign for Captain Duncan6 during his Continuance in the assistant Capacity they have authorized.
I stated in my Letter of the 28th: of August,7 the Directions I had given upon Advice from Captain Brisbane8 of the Capture of the Fox, with my Motives on that Occasion. I have since been informed by Sir George Collier, that Captain Fotheringham9 was re-instated in the Ship; tho' it was then judged impracticable to put her in Condition for proceeding to Newfoundland or Europe: Her Rigging being deemed wholly unserviceable, and the Stores at Halifax too much exhausted
to supply the Defect.
I shall now in Obedience to their Lordships' Commands signified in your Letter of the 23d. of August,10 give Orders for a Court Martial to be held to inquire into the Cause of the Capture of the Fox, as soon as the Number of Officers and Men judged sufficient for the purpose have been released; And I shall re-commission the Ship accordingly. Their further Directions respecting the Hancock will be complied with at the same Time.
Lieutenant Robinson,11 late of the Bristol, has the Leave communicated to him for his Return to England; and quitted the Bristol before I left the Delaware.
Having been some Time before informed from Rhode-Island of the Decease of Captain Banks12 I judged it expedient, in consideration of the many beneficial Services rendered by Captain Bourmaster13 in his Office of Principal Agent of the Transports, and for the Encouragement of the Officers in that Branch, to promote him to the Command of the Renown. But his Health not permitting him to to repair immediately to the Ship, and the Arrangement afterwards made for a considerable part of the Transports to remain at Philadelphia, requiring extraordinary Attention to have them fitted for future Employment, which his Experience in that Department more particularly qualified him to direct, I
appointed Captain Dickson14 to command the Renown; and Captain Dawson15 (who has been distinguished by the most spirited Conduct on several Occasions, since he has served in this Country) to the Greyhound: Influenced in that Choice, by fresh Testimonies of the Ability which induced their Lordships to place the Hope as a Sloop of War on the Establishment of the Navy, in Favor of Captain Dawson.
Tho' their Lordships have intended that the Quantity of Provisions by the Convoies sent with the Experiment and Venus should amount to a proportion for 13,000 and 16,000 men respectively for four Months; One of the Victuallers having been separated from each of the Convoies on the Passage and taken by the Rebels; The Supply received has not been greater in the whole than for a Term of fifteen Weeks for 29,000 Men. A further small deduction must be made from that Computation, consequent of a Misfortune that happened to the Juliana Victualler;16 which in passing on to Philadelphia for supplying the Ships left in the Delaware, struck, by some Inattention, on one of the upper Range of
Chevaux de Frize, which entered her Bottom, and she immediately sunk. By the particular Diligence of the Agent, Lieutenant Barker,17 the Ship was weighed and taken up to the Town. But I had not received any Account before I quitted the Delaware of the Articles of her Lading which were preserved in fit Condition to be issued in the Fleet.
The Hope Victualler, which separated from the Venus, was retaken by the Mermaid. But the Frigate proceeding on after the Privateer which was in Sight at the same Time, she parted from the Hope.18 And the Victualler not being since arrived, there is Reason to apprehend some further Accident has happened to her. A considerable part of the Bread received at New York by former Convoies, has proved very defective. The apparent Cause thereof, with the several other Matters respecting the Victualling Service, have been reported to the Commissioners in that Department.
The Paper enclosed (the Contents of which were communicated to me a few Days before I left the Delaware) contains all the Particulars I have received regarding Ships of two Decks building by the Rebels, since the Date of the Information I transmitted to their Lordships with my Letter of the 29th. of last June.
I am, with great Consideration, Sir, [&c.]
[Enclosure]
Intelligence received the 25th: December 1777.
James Morris, late Master of the Friendship Brig from the Island of Providence1 for London, was taken by a Schooner Privateer2 the 6th: of last September, in the Latitude of 39°, and 50°: West Longitude; and was carried into Boston, from whence he was released in Exchange about the middle of November
He reports, that there were forty Privateers carrying from 12 to 32 Guns (tho' mostly from 16 to 22 Guns) fitting at that port: The Rebels arming all the Captures they can make serviceable for the purpose: Among these the Weymouth Packet3 taken on her Return from Jamaica last July, about 300 Leagues from the Lizard. Many British Seamen enter from the Prizes, to serve in the Privateers: Of which some are the property of Persons who keep Dram-Shops in the Town.
That he saw the Keel and Floor-Timbers laid for a 74 Gun-Ship, building at North End in Boston; The Scantlings whereof appeared scarcely sufficient for a Frigate; And only 12 Men were at work upon her.
He was informed another Ship of the same Class was building at Portsmouth in New Hampshire but did not hear any further particulars concerning her.4
By another person released from Portsmouth arrived about the same Time at New-York, this last Ship is said to be covered in as high as the Lower Deck, and proposed to be finished in next May. It was reported that the Guns and Furniture were daily expected from France.